chrispederick.com
Going To The Big House
- Web Developer
- 12 Comments
- 3 years ago on February 6, 2005
Sam came over to my desk on Thursday with the December issue of Software Development magazine and said I should read the article at the back of the magazine.
I soon noticed my name in the article as the author stated "I often use Web Developer, a Mozilla Firefox extension written by Chris Pederick". Very cool, I thought, but Sam said I should keep reading. The article continued:
It's a handy tool, and it's most unfortunate that, if Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) has his way, my use of Web Developer may put Chris Pederick in the Big House. Why? Because if I use Web Developer to reverse-engineer a copyrighted "MegaCorp" website, MegaCorp could complain to the local U.S. Attorney that Chris Pederick "induced" me to reverse-engineer its website's functionality, and in doing so, violate MegaCorp's copyright. The vehicle with which Sen. Hatch could make Pederick a potential felon is the "Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004," a controversial bill that, as of this writing, is in its fifth rewrite. Along with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), about which I wrote last month, the so-called "Induce Act" circumvents the fair use argument for copyrighted material by making it a federal offense to "intentionally induce" someone to infringe upon the rights of a copyright holder, regardless of whether the end user of the technology is legally entitled to use it.
At first I was shocked and did not really know what to make of the article, but it will be interesting to follow the progress of this "Induce Act" and see what form of the bill is eventually passed. If you wish to read more, the full article is available online.
In the meantime, if you want me to continue to fight MegaCorp and Senator Hatch, please make sure you donate! 
12 Comments
that version of the INDUCE act failed, hopefully future versions will also be DOA if they are that broad.
In other news, I just found out that you're the guy who is responsible for the greatest browser extension I've ever used and one of my "must have" development tools.
THANKS!
damn mate, thats crazy. I'll send you a big cake with a file in it if you do get locked up.
Please, keep up the good work! I only installed it a few days ago and I am lost without it when I am using someone else's machine; that is until I insist that they need to install it!
Thanks!
LOL, this is some crazy bull....
A website resp. it's source (HTML, CSS, Scripts, whatever) is always available to the public, and can be 'reverse engineered' by a broad variety of tools or by hand. I doubt that's even the right term, as there's no need to reverse sth., or have you seen a compiled website lately?
With the same arguments they could then sue Macromedia for Dreamweaver or the Firefox authors for it's code-view...
It would be best for such MoronCorps to restrict access to their sites so that you can't view them via a browser or similar HTML-capable programs...
BTW, WDT ROCKS!!! I use it regularly to reverse engineer my own designs. ;-]
Here's a 2¢ quasi-legal thought: If faced with claims of 'ripping off' somebody else's CSS or HTML, my first argument would be that it is not copyrightable.
See: 17 USC 102(b): In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any ... method of operation ...regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
The hard part is that this didn't work by arguing that machine-readable code represents a method of operation 'per se'. Let's hope INDUCE doesn't force us to have to argue these points & that MoronCorp doesn't otherwise try to prevent us from using time-saving tools like WDT to adopt others best practices for proven methods of operation.
I am brand new to making a web site, and, old and retired, learning in bits and pieces, but have managed to put one together. Learned to use "View Source," which, it seems to me, is available on all modern browsers. Right? So how is your Web Developer Toolbar, Chris, any different?
What are they thinking about "reverse engineering"? Aren't there books and photocopy machines, and does Senator Hatch go after Xerox for inducing photocopies?
Seems to me there's something royally (any pun intended) messed up about the thinking behind "inducement."
The onus is on the USER to act responsibly. Seems to me. I believe in and respect copyright, too.
Tue, 19 Apr 2005 19:06:35
CarolW
Doesn't seem to work with Firefox 1.0.3 and I miss it!
Chris, I wouldn't worry about this too much as any law such as this would be completely unenforceable, even if they were stupid enough to pass it. After all, how would they know you were responsible unless they "reverse-engineered" the site in question?
"If Web Developer is outlawed, only outlaws will have Web Developer!"
BTW, I do professional web development and my company's site gets millions of hits each month. We recently did a redesign, and thanks in great deal to your extension, I was able to create a site that is fully w3c compliant (both XHTML 1.0 and CSS) AND reduced the average code size of the pages by 50% to 66%! And we're talking multiple thousands of pages. Admittedly, most of it is all templated, but without your tool it would have taken ten times as long. I work for a nonprofit, so can't really donate, but I try and spread the word around as much as possible to those that can!
So, when my company offers me a pen/biro it induces me to copy text from books/magazines and therefor is liable?
Awesome tool Chris! I just installed it and checked it's features - love it!
Gerry
3 years ago
February 8, 2005
Damn, that sure is screwed up.
Congratz on getting you name in the mag.... well sorta =D I hope this article doesn't draw the wrong kind of attention.